1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer hardware and software security/privacy and, more particularly, to the means of electronically protecting and masking the network location of the computer hardware.
2. Related Art
Today, nearly every computer has the capability to communicate over the Internet. Most commonly, the Internet is used today to allow a client at its origin to query and exchange information with a server (target). This typically is in the form of a personal computer or device accessing information on a public server or a corporate private server at another location. There is the need for users and companies to have private data transactions but would like the convenience of the ease of accessibility over the Internet. Most commonly, the use of secure point-to-point communication is used, such as VPN for users to access private company information. One of the drawbacks of Internet communication is the capability of third parties to monitor, breach and even imitate communication between the client and server. Given that the Internet location of both user and server are known, third parties also have the capability to discover the actual Internet location of both client and server devices, a capability that may be undesirable for user and public and/or private hosted servers. In addition, by discovering the actual network location of the server, the third party may have the capability to attack the server to gain access to consolidated information, which is valuable to the company's business.